Cole Cubelic
The Gulf Coast Athletic Club opened its January 31, 2022 meeting at Woodside Restaurant in Gulf Shores. President George Autrey welcomed the crowd at 6:55pm and guests were introduced.
President George addressed the small amount of Club business, mainly, for next year, do we stay at Woodside, who has been extremely accommodating or go back to our long-time home at the newly renovated Craft Farms at probably an increased fee. The Board will meet later in the year and make that decision. Trivia Night and the Golf Tournament, our largest fundraising events, are also still in the air.
A brief GSHS sports report was given. The Football team had a remarkable 6-4 season, but failed to make the playoffs. A drop down to a lower classification next year should be helpful! Bowling was 8th in the State. Basketball and Wrestling are in full swing and both are doing great! Golf will start 2/22/22. Go Dolphins!
Dr. Gaylon McCollough introduced two more exceptional GSHS Scholar-Athletes to the assembled crowd, always the best part of any meeting. Due to it being Senior Night for both Basketball teams, and both our Scholar-Athletes are on the roundball teams, neither nor their parents were present!
Our Female Scholar-Athlete is Baylee Taylor, a Senior excelling in Basketball and Track. She has a 4.3 GPA and a 32 on the ACT. She has also been the Varsity Football trainer for the last three years. She runs the 400 & 800 meters and is the Senior Class Vice-President. This talented young lady is in the National Honor Society and wants to major in pre-med with a sports medicine emphasis.
Sean Kirby, our Male Scholar-Athlete, has a 4.4 GPA and a perfect 36 in the ACT, a very smart young man! He plays basketball and soccer and is a National Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalist. He is also a prestigious Bryant-Jordan Scholar and wants to be an Engineer. H’s off to the Rambling Wreck of Georgia Tech in the Fall although MIT may be calling.
Congratulations to both these truly outstanding Scholar-Athletes! Doctor McCollough did mention both these and our other featured Scholar-Athletes are in the running for two GCAC scholarships that will be presented in the Spring. It will be a hard choice with these stellar candidates!
President George had the pleasure of announcing the Prolific Pigskin Prognosticator Award Champions. After dominating all season, Bulldog Billy Broyles slid into 4th place, and Andrew McKinney snatched the award from Cynthia Tunnell in the absolute last game of the last week of the season and won all the cash! The PPPA trophy was awarded to top Club picker, the surprised Mayor Steve Means, who promised to drink at least one beer from it in the coming months! War Eagle! Congratulations to all!
Team Reports were handled masterfully again by Dec. Reverting to the old recounting of the Top 25, Dec acknowledged the Georgia Bulldogs for their season and noted that former GCAC member Bulldog Cheryl Cochran is smiling somewhere. After a lackluster reporting by our no-show team supporters, the suspense was mounting. CRYING TOWEL – who to pick with so many to choose from?? Completely disrespecting our ‘tradition’ of not insulting a team more than once in the season (again, you all know who you are), the Crying Towel went to the Alabama Crimson Tide for the Championship game loss to Georgia. “41 years in the making! Kirby slays the Crimson Tide dragon.”
Taylor Means introduced our Speaker, Cole Cubelic. Originally scheduled to appear in October, he was stuck on an airplane (Thanks, Delta), and couldn’t get here in time, but the wait was absolutely worth it! He was in town for the Senior Bowl and spent the next hour telling us about his impressions of all the SEC teams, coaches, players, NIL, transfer portals, and other topics. He was fantastic! You should have been there!
The meeting adjourned at 8:10pm.
